Rhonda Bracey: At Random

I was glad I was here to work – my first two days in Sydney were wet: almost constant rain on Wednesday, and occasional rain today. It’s meant to be 36C tomorrow (HOT!), so I guess the rain will go and I won’t need my light coat. (I packed the coat at the very last minute — the weather reports for Sydney were mild, but the reality was that it was a bit cold, so I was glad of the coat.) And black is obviously the ‘new black’… everyone in the streets was in black clothing. It looked quite depressing.

Work consisted of some doing and lots of informal meetings with Linda, my boss. We got some things sorted about which day of the week I’ll work for them, and the scope of work for the next few weeks. Linda and I had breakfast, lunch, and dinner together on Wednesday — we had a lot to discuss and to catch up on! ;-)I haven’t seen her since a trip to Brisbane nearly a year ago.

Breakfast and lunch were in the food hall below Australia Square (where the office is). I got a bacon and egg breakfast for $8, which was an awful lot cheaper than the $29 breakfast at the hotel! Linda’s coffee cost $2.50 – much cheaper than in Perth.

Dinner on Wednesday night was in the Cockle Bay area of Darling Harbour, at a restaurant called Adria Rybar and Grill. Linda and I both had one of the rotisseried roasts – Linda had the lamb rump and I had the pork. Unbelievably tasty. I don’t know what they rotisseried/marinaded the pork in, but the flavour was infused all through the meat. It was absolutely delicious. Linda said her lamb was wonderful too. I had three really thick slices of pork, with no fat at all. And some veges. All for $25, which considering the location and the quality of the meal was an absolute steal. Linda and I shared a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc from the Marlborough region of New Zealand. Fruity nose with a nice crisp finish, but I can’t remember the name of it.

Dinner on Thursday night was by myself at the Carrington Restaurant in the hotel. It’s decorated very like a ‘gentleman’s club’, with Chesterfield sofas, dark wooden furniture, heavy curtains, dark carpet, crisp white linen napery, etc. — even a live piano player! I had Tasmanian Salmon ($35) with a Rocket and Blue Cheese Salad ($10.50), and a glass of Peter Lehman Cabernet Sauvignon ($10.50). The salmon was perfectly cooked for me (i.e. it had no raw bits in the middle of the very thick round of salmon), and it was very nice.